Page 62 of Into the Mountains (Blue Grove Mountain #3)

EPILOGUE - ELIAS

“ Y ou ready?”

“With you? Always.” We grab our packs and start heading toward the mountain trails the town boasts about constantly.

The last two months living together have been absolute bliss.

Waking up in bed together warms my chest in a way I never thought it would again.

Us, Ethan, the cats; everything feels like it’s finally in place.

My world is put back together with Charlie.

“Should we escape into the mountains together this time?” I ask, holding out my hand to grab hers. She doesn’t hesitate and reaches for my hand, but before she can lace her fingers with mine, the sun glints off of something sitting in the palm of my hand.

A small, gold ring rests there, catching the sunlight at different angles.

“Yes,” she says. “Together.”

I place the ring on her finger and she throws her arms around me, pressing her lips firmly against mine, feeling my heart wanting to burst from my chest as it fully belongs to her and hers to me. Forever.

SIX YEARS LATER

“Come on!” she yells, emphasizing the last word. “We are going to miss it.”

“I don’t think we are going to miss anything, honey. Considering, we are the ones who are throwing the party.”

Charlie is sitting at the edge of our king-sized bed, out of breath as she tries to reach over her slightly rounded belly to tie her shoelaces.

“I know, but part of me hasn’t fully trusted Hudson to keep it a secret and my hormones slash anxiety are telling me that he’s spilled the beans to the whole town.

Which even if he only told one person, that’s practically telling the whole damn town because no one has anything better to do than gossip about what’s between—”

I stop her rambling with a kiss, because if I know anything from her pregnancy hormones lately, it’s that when she starts rambling, she isn’t exactly sure how to stop it.

A voice comes from the bottom of the stairs. “Stop trying to make her go into labor and get the hell down here, already!”

We roll our eyes at the same time. “Hudson,” we say in unison.

I help her tie her shoes the rest of the way and pull her up to her feet. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah,” she says, placing her hand in mine.

We make our way carefully down the stairs.

It’s been a long time since I’ve handled anything pregnancy related, and I’ve probably been overly cautious, but I’d rather be that than completely clueless.

The pregnancy books say that a present and attentive partner helps bond with the baby as well as the mother, and if I can help my wife in any way through this, I am going to do anything I can.

Ethan has been great too. He’s been reading the books with me, not afraid of the anatomy or all the things that he’s learning will happen to his step-mother’s body when she gives birth in a few short months.

“Ma, finally!” Ethan comes around the corner from the kitchen, a fully grown Sable wrapped around his neck.

He comes around to the other side of her, his head practically an inch over hers.

I’m constantly shocked at how much he has grown.

Both physically and mentally. He’s smart.

He was always smart, but he can give Charlie and I a good run most nights.

He’s tall and he’s picked up basketball of all things.

A sport I knew absolutely nothing about and neither did Charlie, but we sure as hell read up on it and learned all we could the second he told us he was trying out for the high school team.

We embarrassed him a lot for the first few weeks as we made a sad attempt at trying to use all the basketball jargon in way too many sentences.

He’s been a good sport about it and knows we are just being supportive in the way we know how to.

He secretly likes it, but he’s a high-schooler now, which means parents are embarrassing.

“Ready to find out if your sibling is a boy or girl?”

“Definitely another boy.”

“Oh?” Charlie asks. “And how would you know?”

“Gimli loves to snuggle against your stomach. And he only likes boys, so obviously, Ethan Jr. is in there.”

“Let’s get one thing straight, we are not naming him Ethan Jr. I get confused enough with the amount of cat names I have to remember. I can’t have two people with the same name.”

“Speaking of, he is definitely going to need a kitten friend to grow up with,” he says, drawing out the last word like that’s going to convince me.

“I think the six you somehow tricked me into when you were eight is plenty.”

He just shrugs his shoulders, but I know my kid. He’s not letting this subject go that easily.

When we get outside to the backyard, we are met with a mix of traditional blues and pinks on tables that have themed food and cookies with “He or She?”

Hudson greets us at the bottom of the porch stairs. “Dude, we said we just wanted something low-key.”

“In Blue Grove? This is low-key.”

All I can do is accept the effort he’s put into a party we didn’t necessarily want and go with it.

“Is this okay?” I turn to Charlie to make sure she isn’t going to go inside to find the baseball bat I know she has hidden in the hallway closet.

I can picture her running out here with it and chasing Hudson around the yard.

Instead, I find a bright smile on her face as she takes it all in, a single tear escaping down her cheek. I wipe it away.

“This is…perfect, actually. I thought I’d want to do this with just them, but this is better.”

“Yeah?”

“I promise.” She turns to me and wraps her arms around my waist.

“Pretty soon you won’t be able to reach around there,” I joke.

“You’re right. The little one won’t let me eventually.” She takes her hands back and lays them over her stomach. I follow her lead and place both of mine over hers.

“Alright, Elias, move aside for Auntie Avery.” I step around to Charlie’s side, my hand coming to rest at her lower back as she takes my place to fawn over the baby.

“As long as Hudson lets Aunt Charlie take that sweet baby from his arms.”

“No chance in hell, Char.”

“Hand her over, Hudson.”

Maybe Charlie didn’t need a baseball bat. She just needed to mention holding his baby and that’s all the ammunition she needs. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Hudson so reluctant to do anything.

But he reaches his two-month old daughter out to Charlie, who coos over her instantly. “I’m setting a timer for five minutes. As soon as that goes off, you’re giving her back.”

“Alright, deal.” She pauses and stares down at our niece for a few seconds before looking up at her friend.

Her sister. Even though we aren’t really all related in any way now, by marriage or otherwise, we are all still a family.

Avery and Charlotte were a family before this town and they’ve fit right in since they’ve come here. We are all better off for it.

“Avery, she is absolutely beautiful.”

“You say that every time you hold her.”

“I know, but it’s true. She’s the perfect little mix of both of you.”

She sleeps soundly as Charlie holds her. That is, until her other aunt arrives and startles her awake. Her blue eyes shine, but the dark hair is all her father’s. She’s mostly unbothered by it though and goes right back to sleep.

Hudson’s timer goes off and like he promised, he wastes no time coming to grab Sunny. His sister beats him to it though. “Sky, I had a timer.”

“And? You get time with her all the time.”

“You get five minutes.”

She rolls her eyes, but doesn’t argue. I leave Charlie’s side for a second to shake Jacob’s hand. “Thanks for coming.”

“Wouldn’t miss it. And if you need a kitten for the little one, I just so happen to have a mom who is ready to give birth any day. Would be ready to go home by the time the baby is born.”

“Okay, you and Ethan need to stop conspiring against me. At this rate, you shouldn’t have wasted all the money on an expansion considering I’m taking all the animals.”

He laughs and pushes further. “It would be perfect though, just putting it out there.”

Putting it out there. Sure.

“It was supposed to be a bit smaller, but I think Hudson got carried away,” I hear Charlie say.

“Actually, you can definitely blame me.” Hudson tries to stop Avery, but she waves him away and turns to Charlotte.

“I know you wanted something small, and it still is small, I promise. I just invited the people you love and who love you so much to celebrate. But the way you’re going to find out is perfect. ”

Charlie doesn’t say anything. She just pulls her friend in for a hug and they stay like that until both of them have tears streaming down their faces. Hudson’s timer goes off again and he gathers Sunny back into his arms. I can see his shoulders relax, the tension leaving his body in waves.

“I hope that timer means the party is getting started now that we’re here.” Fran’s voice comes from the side of the house where she and Cordie are slowly making their way to the back.

“We could never start without you.”

“You’re too sweet lying to two old ladies, dear,” Fran says as she walks to Charlie and pats her gently on the cheek.

She sits in one of the open chairs and rests her cane next to her.

She had a fall a few months ago and broke one of her hips.

It’s been harder for her to get around, but her companion, Mr. Camp, the head of the local ski lodge has been helping her more recently, even though he’s been around a lot over the last six years since they started seeing each other.

“No, you mean they wouldn’t actually start without us,” Frank says from the back porch, his parrot—also named Frank—perched on his shoulder, and his wife, Bea, on his other side, holding his arm.

I walk to the porch to help them down. “Never in a million years. We wouldn’t be here without you two.”

He waves me off like it’s not true. But it is. Seeing him and his second chance date that night Charlie and I went out, shifted our lives more than he knows.

“I think we deserve some of the credit, too,” Andy’s voice calls. She’s followed by Meredith cradling their sleeping five month old boy.

An older boy comes running behind them, tugging on Andy’s pants. “Mama, can I have some cookies?”

“I’m sure Aunt Charlie and Uncle Eli would love to share, Aaron.”

Charlie comes over to our friends and embraces them both. They all kept their promise over the last few years to keep their friendship alive. We visit them one year, and they come to us the next. With this new baby, we haven’t seen them in a while, besides when we visited for the birth.

“I can’t believe you are here,” Charlie says between her tears.

“Where else would we be?”

They smile through their tears as they all start cooing over the sleeping baby.

Ethan comes barreling over to his grandparents. “Grandpa, Grandma, let’s go,” he insists.

“We’re coming, let us catch up.”

“Speak for yourself, old man,” Isabelle tells her husband as she takes off after her grandson and chases him through the yard like he’s a little kid again.

With everyone here, Avery comes over and hands Charlie an envelope.

“That’s it,” she starts. “I figured what better way than to open it together in front of everyone or inside if you want. Find out together and then tell us.”

I smile at Charlie at the same time she smiles at me. “It’s perfect.”

We open it together, and we cry tears of joy at the excitement and anticipation of welcoming a new life into our little world.

Into Blue Grove, Oregon. The place I wouldn’t be the same without.

The place I moved to because I didn’t have anywhere else to go.

The place I stayed in because I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving more family behind for my son.

The place that turned into my home. The place I was lucky enough to rediscover another love of my life and will call home for the rest of my life.

THE END